Participants
Everyone in the record. Names follow the dialogue CSV; where the CSV says Unidentified, this page says unidentified. ASR renderings are shown in code. No minutes were available to check spellings, and the podium names of floor speakers are mostly lost in the transcription.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Tracy Pope | School district moderator, presiding (name uncertain in the CSV) | Read the rules, recognized speakers and put every question. She is not named on this recording; the name rests on the Article 1 slate, which lists "The moderator, Tracy Pope" (0:06:54). |
| Dr. Keith Pfeifer | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 (Doctor Keith Speicher, Doctor Piper) | Introduced the administrators (0:01:08). |
| Frank Sprague | School board chair | Introduced the board (0:02:11); closed with a plea against the default budget (0:57:57). |
| Jason Benware | Board member; budget subcommittee (Jason Benner) | Read and presented Article 2, the operating budget. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member (Caroline Holt, Mrs. Tom) | Presented Article 1, the election of officers. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member; candidate on the ballot (Bob Lovett) | Presented Articles 3 (Bluff roof) and 5 (radios). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; budget subcommittee | Presented Article 4 (Disnard fire panel). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board vice chair | Presented Article 6 (bus cameras). |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member | Not named in the chair's introduction of the board and not heard on the recording. |
| Mark Chase | Chief, Claremont Police Department; Ward 1 resident (Chief Chang) | Spoke for the radio article. |
| Patricia Barry | Principal, Stevens High School (attribution uncertain in the CSV) | Spoke for the radio article; "We have only five working radios at the high school right now" (0:43:57). |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology (spoke as Joshua Ward one) | Spoke for and answered questions on the radio system. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 (moderator's Mr. Blair; attribution medium) | Answered on bus-camera audio and records law (0:54:40). |
| Unidentified administrator | Answered on radio integration with buses (possibly LeClair) | At 0:48:38. |
| Unidentified resident | Ward 1 | Asked how a $100,000 roof article could have no tax impact (0:35:28). |
| Unidentified questioner | Female voice, not named | Asked whether the radios would reach the bus garage and buses (0:47:06). |
| Unidentified resident | Ward 3 (ASR I see the nation) | Spoke against bus cameras without audio (0:52:46). |
| Unidentified board member(s) | Procedural motions and seconds | Minutes approval and both motions to restrict reconsideration. |
| Mayor Charlene Lovett | Mayor of Claremont (named by the chair as in the audience) | Did not speak; quoted by the chair (0:59:40). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No warrant or rules sheet for this session is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the moderator's transitions and the articles as read aloud. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:26 | Opening, Pledge, introductions | Administrators (0:01:08) and the school board (0:02:11) introduced. |
| 0:02:43 | Rules of procedure | Read by the moderator; counters introduced (0:04:24). |
| 0:05:34 | Minutes of the February 8, 2018 deliberative session | Approved on a voice vote (0:06:04). |
| 0:06:35 | Article 1: election of district officers | Presented by Towle; voice vote (0:07:39); goes to the ballot. |
| 0:07:51 | Article 2: operating budget, $35,293,063 (default $35,113,750 as read) | Presented by Benware; no speakers; a voice vote was first put on a misstated figure and then retaken on the correct one (0:31:16, 0:32:26); goes to the ballot unamended. Reconsideration of Articles 1 and 2 restricted (0:32:54, 0:33:28). |
| 0:33:39 | Article 3: Bluff Elementary roofing, $100,000 | Presented by Lovett; one question; voice vote (0:37:13). |
| 0:37:13 | Article 4: Disnard fire alarm panel, $80,000 | Presented by Petrin; voice vote (0:38:51). |
| 0:38:51 | Article 5: district-wide two-way emergency radio system, $249,950 | Presented by Lovett; four speakers for, one question; voice vote (0:50:02). |
| 0:50:21 | Article 6: bus surveillance cameras, $51,000 | Presented by Zullo; one speaker against; voice vote (0:57:05). Reconsideration of Articles 3 to 6 restricted (0:57:21, 0:57:33). |
| 0:57:57 | Closing remarks by the board chair | On the default budget. |
| 1:04:24 | Close | Declared by the moderator; ballot session March 12. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Each time is the start of the cited row, from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:02:43 | Rules | "More articles do not require a motion to be passed on to the voters." They "are automatically presented as written or amended by the voters present to the March 12th ballot session." (0:03:05). Amendments "must be in writing" (0:03:31); a secret-ballot procedure described (0:04:42). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:34 | Last year's minutes | "I'd like to begin the meeting with a motion to approve the minutes of the February 8th, 2018, deliberative succession." Approved. | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:54 | Article 1 | Towle: officers for one-year terms, "The moderator, Tracy Pope, District Clerk Mary Wigman [Woodman], and Mr. Treasurer Jane Hunter", and three board seats; candidates as heard: "Caroline Toll, Michelle Piper, Brian Rath, Rob Lovett and the one two year term is Heather Whitney." | |
| 0:08:39 | Article 2 as read | "totaling $35,293,063. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $35,113,750". "The above operating budget includes the sum necessary to fund the cost items in the 20 1920 fiscal year for a three year collective bargaining agreement reached between the Claremont School Board and the Claremont Administrators Association." (0:09:25). | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:09:52 | The agreement's cost | "The estimated increase of 17,789. 2021 estimated the increase is 31,197 and 2122 32,000 to 85." Plain-language version: "If voters approved the budget this year, it means they are also approving the increases to the budget for this agreement for the following two years." (0:11:52). | POSITIVE |
| 0:10:49 | Why two budget figures | "This amount includes money from grants and other state and federal sources that don't impact our tax rate." Later: "The main article, the operating budget is $31,828." (0:28:47). | |
| 0:17:57 | Budget goal | Target: half of $914,841 in fixed-cost increases and lost revenue; "a total increase of 434,714, which comes in below our target." (0:18:34). | |
| 0:21:24 | Reductions and additions | High school positions "$258,729"; preschool "$134,425"; Bluff "$84,125"; six district-wide "$143,100"; "reductions are all reductions. As we look at them right now, that can be made by either attrition or by reassignment." (0:21:58). Alternative program "$373,914" (0:23:46). | |
| 0:29:57 | Tax impact | "The total of all warnings, $32,309,013 would increase the tax rate of all warrants were approved by $0.79." With lost revenue, "your total tax increase would be $0.90 per 1000." | |
| 0:31:16 | A vote on the wrong number | "I'm going to declare a voice phone favor of the main budget in the $5,113,757." Then: "I'm sorry. The amount was $35,293,063. All of these signify by saying I, opposed. Nay, the ayes have it." (0:32:26). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:32:54 | Restricting reconsideration | "I'd like to move to restrict considerations of article one and article." Moderator: "someone could come back to article two and make an amendment by restricting it. It's past and we can't back to it." (0:33:00). Adopted. | POSITIVE |
| 0:35:28 | A roof with no tax impact? | Ward 1 resident: "Can you tell me where or how that is possible with an appropriation of 100,000? Is 100,000 coming from the Capital Reserve fund". The answer is not clearly transcribed. | |
| 0:37:36 | Fire panel | Petrin: the panel "is at least 20 years old"; if it fails, "You then have to post the fire fire department at the school until it's replaced" (0:38:06). | |
| 0:40:37 | Radios: the police chief | "The radio systems that they're using quite frequently never work." (0:40:55). "we had a specific incident in November, December where it was apparent that we needed some sort of immediate communications with the school. We didn't have it." (0:41:19). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:43:00 | Radios: the high school | "I'm speaking to fellow administrators. This is a great need." An ill student in the cafeteria; "We have only five working radios at the high school right now where we should have at least ten." (0:43:57). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:45:09 | Radios: technology director | "Joshua Ward one. We did a lot of research on this". On bus integration: "I'm like 95%, maybe 7% sure." (0:48:31); "If you believe the salesperson. It'll definitely work." (0:49:30). | |
| 0:50:35 | Bus cameras | Zullo, as a parent; four internal and two external cameras with recorder and software for "each of our 12 full size busses" (0:51:46). | |
| 0:52:46 | Against cameras without audio | Ward 3 resident: in another state "if the bus driver didn't like the particular kid, he would actually verbally say something to instigate the child". LeClair: "The system is audio only the way that the New Hampshire Stack video only, excuse me" (0:54:40); storage and access "defined and dictated by state statute" (0:55:46). | |
| 0:57:21 | Second restriction | "I'd like to make a motion to restrict consideration of articles 44, five." ... "And six." Put as "October 3rd, four, five and six" [Articles 3, 4, 5 and 6] (0:57:33). Adopted. | POSITIVE |
| 0:58:12 | The chair on the default budget | "the legislature has done is that they've created somewhat of a moving target with the intention of giving voters an actual choice." "It's actually $193,340 less than our proposed budget." (0:59:40). "I really hope that people will not succumb to the temptation of voting to save a few dollars" (1:04:05). | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the session against the state law in force on February 6, 2019. A deliberative session is a meeting of the voters, so school-board rules (public-comment periods, nonpublic sessions, roll calls) do not apply to it; RSA chapter 40 as extended to school districts does. They are not findings of violation and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Six flags follow, ordered by severity. No HIGH or MEDIUM flag was found.
OBSERVATION No minutes, warrant or rules sheet for this session are online
RSA 197:20 makes the district clerk keep "a true record of all the doings of each meeting". The district's public Drive shares begin in 2022 and hold nothing for this session (MAP.md section 92, checked September 26, 2026). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that no record was kept: at this session the voters approved the minutes of the February 8, 2018 deliberative session (0:05:34, 0:06:04), which shows the clerk was keeping them, and the 2019 minutes would in the ordinary course have been approved at the 2020 session. The warrant and the rules-of-procedure handout the moderator referred to (0:02:43) are also not online, so the article texts on this page are as read aloud and transcribed. Graded an observation under the project's rule for missing records, consistent with the 2020 deliberative session page.
Sources: RSA 197:20 (1963, 120:5; unamended).
OBSERVATION The default budget was stated three different ways, and a vote was first taken on a wrong figure
Article 2 as read put the default at "$35,113,750" against a proposed $35,293,063 (0:08:39), a difference of $179,313, matching the business administrator's "$179,000 less" at the January 2 hearing (see the hearing page). The board chair then told voters the default was "$193,340 less than our proposed budget" (0:59:40). The moderator first put the voice vote on "the main budget in the $5,113,757" (0:31:16), then corrected herself and retook the vote on $35,293,063 (0:32:26); the correction was made before moving on, which is the right outcome. RSA 40:13, IX(b), as then in force, defines the default by reference to the prior year's budget, reduced by one-time expenditures and "by salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget", and XI(b) provides that the default amount "shall not be amended by the legislative body", so the figure voters see on the ballot comes from the governing body's form, not from the floor. The $14,027 gap between the chair's figure and the article's is unexplained on the record; the ballot and the default budget form, neither online, would show which was right. The transcript's rendering of amounts is itself imperfect (Benware's later reading of the default is transcribed as 35,113 7050 at 0:11:52).
Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI (2018 codification, in force until 2019, 192:2, eff. July 10, 2019).
OBSERVATION Voice votes were taken on every article, though every article goes to the ballot regardless
The moderator correctly told voters that articles "do not require a motion to be passed on to the voters" and are "automatically presented" to the March 12 ballot (0:02:43, 0:03:05). RSA 40:13, VI, as then in force, provides: "All warrant articles shall be placed on the official ballot for a final vote, including warrant articles as amended by the first session." She nonetheless called a voice vote on each article (for example 0:07:39, 0:38:51, 0:57:05). No amendment was offered to any article, so nothing turned on these votes, and a voter could reasonably have taken a loud "nay" on Article 6 (0:57:05) as having some effect. The same practice appears on the 2020 page. Noted only.
Sources: RSA 40:13, IV and VI (2018 codification).
OBSERVATION District administrators spoke in favor of the radio article
A speaker the CSV identifies, with uncertainty, as the Stevens principal told the session "I'm speaking to fellow administrators. This is a great need." and asked voters to "recognize that this is not that amount of money for just radios" (0:43:00, 0:43:57). The technology director spoke for the same article, identifying himself as a Ward 1 resident (0:45:09). RSA 659:44-a, in force from January 1, 2017, provides that "No public employee, as defined in RSA 273-A:1, IX, shall electioneer while in the performance of his or her official duties", and defines electioneering as acting "in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office". Two things cut against applying it here. RSA 40:13, IV makes the first session one of "explanation, discussion, and debate of each warrant article", and the administrators were introduced at the outset as present in their roles (0:01:08), so explaining the district's need is part of what the session is for. And whether a principal speaking at the session is "in the performance of" official duties, and whether these remarks were "specifically designed to influence the vote" rather than to explain it, are not settled by the record or by any source this page verified. Elected board members presenting their own articles fall outside the statute (RSA 273-A:1, IX(a)). Recorded for the reader, not as a finding.
Sources: RSA 659:44-a, I and III (source note ends 2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017); RSA 40:13, IV (2018 codification).
POSITIVE The administrators' agreement went to the voters with its cost for each year and a plain statement of what a yes vote means
Article 2 as read stated that the operating budget "includes the sum necessary to fund the cost items" of "a three year collective bargaining agreement reached between the Claremont School Board and the Claremont Administrators Association", with estimated increases of 17,789, 31,197 and about 32,000 for the three years (0:09:25, 0:09:52), and that a favorable vote approves those costs. Benware then restated it: "If voters approved the budget this year, it means they are also approving the increases to the budget for this agreement for the following two years." (0:11:52). RSA 273-A:3, II(b) provides that "Only cost items shall be submitted to the legislative body" for approval; putting the year-by-year cost before the voters is what that provision is built around. The board had approved the agreement on December 19 without stating its cost (see that page); here the cost reached the voters in full. Embedding the items in the operating budget rather than a separate article means a default-budget outcome also defeats the agreement's cost items, a consequence the board did not spell out.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (source note ends 2013, 244:1).
POSITIVE Rules read, last year's minutes approved by the voters, reconsideration restricted as the statute allows, and the session held inside its window
The moderator read the rules, including written amendments and the secret-ballot procedure (0:02:43, 0:03:31, 0:04:42), asked a questioner to use the microphone so everyone could hear (0:47:50), and put the 2018 session's minutes to the voters (0:05:34). Reconsideration of Articles 1 and 2 and then of Articles 3 through 6 was restricted by vote (0:32:54, 0:57:21); RSA 40:10, I allows a meeting "at any time during a meeting, and without notice in the warrant" to "restrict reconsideration of any one or more votes previously taken at that meeting", and ¶V applies it to school district meetings. RSA 40:13, III, as then in force, placed the first session "between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January"; the last Monday of January 2019 was January 28, so the window was February 2 to 9, and February 6 falls inside it. The board chair's closing advocacy for the budget (0:57:57) was by an elected official, whom RSA 659:44-a does not reach (see flag 4).
Sources: RSA 40:10, I and V (1996, 64:1; unamended); RSA 40:13, III (2018 codification).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files (the dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the pages)
Dialogue/10232 SchoolBoardDeliberative020619.mp4.CSV: dialogue file, 215 rows.Input/Videos/10232 SchoolBoardDeliberative020619.mp4; Input/Transcripts/10232 SchoolBoardDeliberative020619.mp4.json.Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 92.Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10232 SchoolBoardDeliberative020619.mp4.md; Scripts/roster_2015_2023.md.
Laws and rules cited on this page